Katherine or Catherine

Today being Lady day, I thought it would be appropriate to have a word about some of the six wives of Henry VIII and especially Mrs Parr.

There has been two new books published very recently in 2010, one by Linda Porter titled Katherine the Queen-the remakable life of Katherine Parr and another by Elizabeth Norton titled Catherine Parr- wife, widow, mother, survivor and the last Queen of Henry VIII. (a bit of a long subtitle really.) There is also a book written last year titled Catherine Parr Henry -VIII's last love by Lucey Baldwin Smith

Now the first thing to notice of course that her name has been spelt with a different letter. Spelling in Tudor times was a bit random even the word queen was spelt quene. It wasn't until Dr Johnson published his dictionary that spelling as we know it was made common. I'll leave it to you to read the books and decide which spelling you prefer but I'll keep with Catherine.

She was a remarkable woman and also very wealthy having been married twice before, she married again after Henry to Thomas Seymour. She out lived Henry but died shortly after childbirth of her child with Seymour. What is with Henry and three wives called Catherine? It must have made the scribes life a little easier at least. The title of survivor should really go to Anne or Anna of Cleves, she outlived all of them, she also perhaps should have the title of virgin Queen.

Elizabeth Norton has also written a book on Anne of Cleeves last year and Jane Seymour too.

All the six wives have different reasons for marrying the King and came from different backgrounds and even different countries. He married four times out of love, once out of affection and only once for Duty. Tudor History Tours have two themed tours this year looking for the Six Wives of One King and we have received a goodly number of enquiries.

http://www.tudorhistorytours.com/